Rick Steves Luggage: Helpful for Frequent Travelers?

When I heard that travel expert Rick Steves was offering his own brand of luggage, I admit to geeking out more than a little. I've packed for trips, both domestic and international, in just about every possible type of bag, luggage and container you can think of, but I've never found a truly perfect bag. In all fairness, I'm picky. I don't like nagging little threads that stick out of seams. I hate it when pieces of brittle plastic lining in a large piece of luggage starts to crack off into little pieces. I don't like it when wheels wobble. Why do I care so much about all these little annoyances? Because traveling is hard enough and the last thing you want is a seam of your luggage unraveling or a zipper malfunctioning, causing you to lose belongings or get snagged on airplane seats or bus stop benches.

After a while, the glamour of travel begins to fade and you realize that what you need more than anything is convenience and comfort while you travel. I don't travel because I want to see airports and the interiors of taxi cabs, I want to get where I'm going as quickly as possible and I'm always ready to come home. Crummy luggage is a huge buzzkill.

So when I was gifted with a Rick Steves bag for my birthday, to be specific the Rick Steves Appenzell Day Pack, I was eager to try it out on the road and see if it would make getting from point A to point B any easier. Last October when we headed to Orlando for a long trip of filming for our theme park web series, I was happy to discover that the bag does in fact deliver on several levels. The differences may seem small, but they're worth it.

Here are just a few reasons to consider investing in a Rick Steves bag.

1. If you love to fly but you hate to check your bags, this one may offer you a solution. Let's face it, getting your bag lost or misplaced is very common. It's happened to me a few times, but when I arrived after an arduous trip to Romania to find that my bag was lost (and wouldn't be recovered for well over a week) that was the last straw. Since then, I've learned to pack light and carry on. Every single time. If you want to play it safe, consider doing this. The Appenzell Day Pack is perfect for this because the main compartment can be used for just clothing and maybe a straightening iron or one more large item, you can fit your laptop and there are still plenty of pockets for a makeup bag and accessories. Yet it's still the approved size for carry-on luggage.

Of course, you are also allowed another small bag like a purse or a camera bag as well, where you can fit your phone and an iPod or whatever else you need. And usually, I have room to spare left in the bag. Every backpack won't be able to hold this capacity, because the Rick Steves bags are designed specifically for hiking. (And yet most bags designed specifically for hiking would be far too large to carry on a plane. So this bag is sort of a hybrid that offers the best of both worlds.) Any bag built to help someone carry life-sustaining tools on their person for days at a time can certainly handle what you need for a week of adventure in the tourist town nearest you.

Pocket room, glorious pocket room. There are five large pockets that zip shut, two of which are as tall as the actual bag itself. On top of that, each large pocket has some combination of smaller pockets inside. I'm telling you, its pocket heaven. There are plenty of areas to keep small items separate, bags of cough drops, hair ties, travelers checks, pens and paper...you name it you'll be able to stow it.

Expandable Volume. Most bags are designed to be filled up, the Appenzell Day Pack is designed to be filled up and also out. This means that if you pack light, you can still come back from your trip with plenty of souvenirs.

An intelligent space for your laptop. Many laptop pockets are placed on the outside of the bag. But there are actually two places in this bag to stow a laptop. The first is a large pocket within the main compartment of the bag that places the laptop at your back in the same compartment with your clothing, preventing it from being stolen or pick pocketed if you're not paying careful enough attention. The second spot isn't technically for a laptop, but I find that it works well if I've been using my laptop on a layover and the computer is still to running so hot that I don't want it to sit against my back. It's near the outside under another set of pockets, but there's a flap over the zipper so that you can't even see that the space is designed for a pocket.

Comfortable shoulder straps. Every bag says it has comfortable shoulder straps, but they rarely do. This bag has padded straps that are wide enough to help distribute the weight of the bag evenly when its weighed down and instead of being sewn straight down, they're curved to fit the contours of your shoulders and your back.

Comes in a variety of bright colors. It may sound silly, but bright and unique colors are crucial and can save you tons of time trying to spot your bag in an overhead compartment or if you have to check for any reason, on a luggage turnstyle at the airport. Most people carry black and grey luggage, or even forest green. My Appenzell is bright orange and easy to spot immediately. One more bonus to the color? If my husband and I get separated in a crowd, he can find my in a flash by just looking for the large spot of orange.

I don't do product reviews very often anymore. But cheesy as this sounds, this is the kind of bag I've been waiting for and it has been such a helpful tool that makes my traveling experiences more enjoyable. So I wanted to spread the word to fellow travelers that this bag is well worth it if you're the type of traveler who doesn't like to tangle with your luggage or worry that it's going to unzip in an overhead compartment or be ripped open underneath the seat of a rental car. For its solid construction and comfortable I fit, I would highly recommend the Rick Steves Appenzell Day Pack. (Of course, if you're a travel geek like me, you may also enjoy that little bit of pride you feel toting around a bag made famous by the host of a legendary PBS travel show...that part certainly doesn't hurt.)

I'll be taking mine to California for another punishing round of flights, cars, hotels and theme parks next week. Where do you take your bags and how often do they affect your travels for good or bad? Just a little food for thought, luggage should be the last thing on your mind while traveling, right?